Arraignment of pol detainee should be case junking – KMU

October 27, 2015

By KMU

Workers led by KMU picket the Manila Regional Trial Court, call to junk the trumped-up charges against Adel Silva. Image from KMU

Workers led by national labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno and with other progressive organizations under the Free Adel Silva network picketed the Manila Regional Trial Court this morning, saying the political detainee should not be arraigned and the case against him should be junked immediately.

The labor group said that Silva was not named by so-called witnesses in the alleged 1985 massacre in Inopacan, Leyte, which supposedly killed more than 70 people, and that he should be immediately set free.

It also said that another person is currently in prison on the basis of an arrest warrant against Adelberto Silva, proof of the government and the military’s indiscriminate filing of trumped-up charges against activists and arrests of the latter.

“Adelberto Silva should not be arraigned and the cases filed against him should be junked immediately. The government and the military do not have any basis for filing charges against him and keeping him imprisoned,” said Roger Soluta, KMU vice-chairperson.

The government and the military have accused Silva of supposedly replacing Benito and Wilma Tiamzon in the leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines, while KMU has claimed that Silva is a long-time unionist and labor organizer and is the labor group’s adviser on the peace process.

“There simply is no reason to keep Silva in jail any minute longer. All the charges that were filed against him are trumped-up and were fabricated with the objective of keeping him in jail,” Soluta added.

Last Friday, Marilou Runes-Tamang, presiding judge of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 98, ruled that Eduardo Serrano, a political prisoner for 11 years, is not the accused “Rogelio Villanueva” and must be immediately released.

“The travesty of justice that was committed in the case of Eduardo Serrano is the rule, not the exception, when it comes to political detainees in the country. We say: no more Eduardo Serrano’s. Free Adel Silva and all political detainees now,” Soluta stated.